


Out of Place

by KodaOfHeart



Series: Sourblood [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends, F/F, Genderfluid Character, Limebloods, M/M, Meteorstuck, Multi, Original Character(s), Other, Synesthesia, it's wholesome, the mayor speaks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 08:18:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20503796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KodaOfHeart/pseuds/KodaOfHeart
Summary: Solern and Reglus have escaped (yes I skipped everything in-between, I don't like writing boring transition stuff), and are on the run. After becoming cornered by some drones and left to Reglus's escape plan, Solern finds themselves living alone in the dream bubbles. It's not so bad, just a little weird.But what's REALLY weird is this meteor that's drifting through paradox space. Maybe they should check it out?





	Out of Place

**Author's Note:**

> This one was a real bitch with formatting, wow! Why must I write synesthetic dialogue T_T
> 
> You don't really need to read the first part of the series to understand this, though it will help understand the relationship and situation of Reglus and Solern. It's like 3k words it's not as long as this one
> 
> Yes this is an insert of my fantroll into pre-retcon meteorstuck, what about it? I thought they'd have an interesting dynamic with the canon trolls so. I wrote it. End cringe culture 2k19
> 
> Rated teen for 2 brief violence scenes, and the usual strong language
> 
> As always, I write casually and usually just for my own eyes (I only recently decided to publish my fics), so it will read more like a story than a book if that makes sense. I tried my best to write in-character but few people can do that well and I ain't one of em
> 
> Relationships-wise: Rose<3Kanaya (unofficially), Terezi<3Karkat because catch me being a paleslut
> 
> Solern's pronoun changes are in bold. More limeblood lore is made up because I can
> 
> I'm @ClownDefeated on Twitter, hope you enjoy this labor of love, lmk if you liked it or want to know more about my fantrolls!

_BANG!_ The ground shakes as another large drone is shot to the ground.

Reglus runs across the land, looking for some, any, safe place to hide out in. But the drones have gotten him in their sights, and more come in from the horizon to strike him down. In one of his hands is a rifle he picked up from the castle before they escaped it. Not what he usually fights with, but his staff isn’t very good for long-range. In his other hand is the hand of Solern, who races besides him. Though **she**’s not in the drone’s sights at all. She’s not in anyone’s sights.

“Dammit, Solern!” Reglus shouts over the gunfire. “Why are you the only lime-blooded troll who can’t make others invisible?!” There’s no real bite to his words, only frustration at the unlucky situation.

"Wanted to live alone like a normal troll, not in some weird community!” her voice shouts from beside him. Feeling her grip in his hand is the only way Reglus can keep consistent track of where she is like this. It doesn’t make too much sense for her to be invisible right now, since one of them the visible one of the pair has been spotted, but it’s her natural defense which she refuses to turn off in public.

It had only been a few days since the two had escaped the castle. Solern had taken them to the nearest lime community she knew about, which was their first mistake. The trolls there were all obviously weary of the highblood. He was disguised as best as he could be - all his gold decorations were removed, not any fabric of clothing on his body was violet. But he couldn’t hide his fins, or his violet words which most of the others could see. Solern had tried to make the others trust him like she did, and while they didn’t trust him, they trusted her, as she was one of them. So they let the two stay the night. One mutant of the group, however, anonymously tipped off some drones in their direction when they headed out the next day. He had believed no seadweller could be trusted, and that Reglus must’ve manipulated Solern into thinking otherwise. It didn’t take long for the drones to catch sight of them and begin the chase. Solern and Reglus found decent temporary hiding spots, but none lasted more than a few hours, and before they knew it they found themselves running across a stretch of barren land, no hiding places in sight.

As they started to run dangerously low on stamina, Reglus’ aim and Solern’s invisibility allowed them just enough time to dive into a cave hive at the last second, and heard the drones immediately start to pound into the ground overhead. Dried burgundy blood painted on the walls and a mostly-decayed lusus corpse were all that remained inside, assuring the runaways that the hive was abandoned. Solern becomes visible again and lets go of Reglus’ hand, sliding down the wall and holding her head in her hands.

“How the fuck did this happen?” she wonders out loud. Reglus kneels in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders.

“We’ll figure something out, okay? Don’t worry. Don’t worry,” the highblood murmurs, mostly to himself. He searches his sylladex for something that could help them, but he's mostly carrying items for the long-term life they had planned for. Maps, portable recuperacoons, canned grubsauce. But then - the vial. The Last Resort, he had been calling it.

He retrieves the bottle and rolls it around in his hand. It’s a small glass vial, containing about a shot’s worth of a thin liquid. It's a deep blue hue containing clouds of purple, and glimmers in the reflections of the glass, making it look like a galaxy in liquid form. Solern looks up at Reglus, then follows his gaze to his hands. She narrows her eyes.

“What’s that?”

He doesn’t answer her, but instead uncorks the bottle and takes a whiff. He has to hold back vomit in his throat, since it smells absolutely revolting.

“Reg,” Solern starts again, “what is that?”

He looks at her with a sad, defeated look in his eyes. As he starts to debate if he should even tell her about it, he hears mechanical whirrs above them, and knows that the drones have started to drill into the almost unbreakable dirt. Keyword almost.

“Look, we’re running out of time, okay? I got this from a royal scientist some time ago just in case. It combines your waking conscious and your dream self’s body. You get to live, alive, as your dream self, forever. You can move from bubble to bubble, too, so you can be free to explore endless worlds. You can be free.” His words are rushed, and he’s surprised at himself by how easily he lied. It wasn’t from a scientist, but instead some back-alley merchant.

Some sweeps before, he had been out searching for lowbloods to befriend, but found her instead: a mysterious jadeblood who had interesting offers. He didn’t know if he trusted what she said the potion did, and still doesn’t know if he does, but he feigns confidence in the elixir for Solern’s sake. She just looks at him, confused and frightened.

“What exactly are you suggesting here?”

He takes her hands and cup them around the bottle. His grip on her is tight and trembling. “Solern, my dear… it’s a final escape plan. You need to get out of here. You need to.”Wait, what? Me, not us? Reglus, they’ll kill-!”

He dismisses her words with a wave of his hand, trying to appear casual. “I have a chance at surviving, they’d let a highblood like me try to justify myself. You, on the other hand... you they’d kill on sight. They’d collapse this cave without giving you a moment to escape. They would. They were programmed to do that.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I was on the council that decided to do that,” he regretfully admits. Solern’s eyes go wide. “I-I tried to suggest other options, I did! But they-” rocks and dirt start falling from the ceiling, shutting him up. He knows he has to make this quick, or they'll both be killed. It's time for goodbyes.

He strokes Solern's cheek softly with his hands, wiping away some of the yellow-green tears streaking down it. “Close your eyes for me, doll. Trust me. Trust me.” He speaks softly, which can’t really be heard over the approaching drills, but Solern can still see the gentle violet when she reads his lips. She closes her eyes and thinks that that might be her favorite color to see as the world literally crumbles around her.

She feels something meet her lips, but it’s not the glass bottle like she was expecting. It’s Reglus, kissing her, for the first and final time. She had been developing flushed feelings for him for some time now, but never thought they’d come to fruition. At least not like this.

His mouth pulls away, and Solern parts her lips, silently asking for more. But the next thing on her lips is the lip of the glass vial. It’s cold and hard, everything his kiss wasn't. With both pairs of hands on the bottle they tip it up. The liquid rushes into Solern’s mouth and straight down her throat. The god-awful flavor makes her choke, and she starts coughing and gagging violently into the bandanna that was tied around her neck.

“Solern? Solern!” Reglus cries out, tears of his own streaming down his face as he watches this troll - one that he’d grown to love and appreciate more than any other he’d ever met - hack aggressively and start fading in and out of visibility uncontrollably. A million different fears of what the potion could actually be doing to her flash through his mind all at once, and he starts to sob as he watches her helplessly. The coughing sounds fade with her visibility, and then she’s gone.

For one desperate moment, Reglus reaches his hands out, hoping, praying, that she’s just gone invisible - but no. His hands go right through the spot where she had sat, and grab the dirt on the ground instead. He closes his eyes tightly as the drones finally break into the enclosure. His mind switches into autopilot and he grabs a sharp rock near him, slicing into both his palms. He holds them up in surrender when the drones shine bright lights at him. The robots stop in their place when they see royal blood trickle down his arms. Though that wasn’t entirely necessary, since he weeps the same color.

Elsewhere in paradox space, Solern feels herself floating up up up. Then crashing _down_ hard to the ground. She groans and gets up quickly, in case she needs to run from any more enemies. And when you’re like her, everyone’s an enemy. She blinks a few times and looks around, discovering quickly that she’s in a completely different place. The air even feels different, but not something she’s unfamiliar with. The sky's iridescence finally clues her in to where she is. Right. Dream bubble. But why can’t I fly, or instantly change my clothes, or do anything I can usually do in dreams? she thinks, attempting each trick as she thinks it, to no avail.

Solern will soon realize that Reglus lied to her about the effects of the concoction she drank. Except that’s not entirely true, since it was the jadeblood wanderer who had lied to Reglus. She needed to upsell her products, didn’t she? In reality, Solern’s dream self was killed, and her waking self moved into its physical place among the dream bubbles. She’s without any powers that dream selves have, and while she is free to move into different worlds as she comes across them, she is stuck among the dead and the sleeping, with no one and no place to call home. She's used to such a feeling, but never this intensely. It's terrifying, and can't even be called freedom - it's just complete detachment.

Perigees pass, and Solern starts to have fun in the bubbles. Since **they** can just switch into another bubble’s universe when one gets close enough, they can live bits of these different lives with the other trolls that reside in the bubbles. They experiment with coming out about their blood color, even flaunting it at times, teasing highbloods, showing off their powers, changing their name. It starts to feel freeing, even if lonely, since no friends they make can stick around long. And they can’t help but miss the one who helped them get here, either.

There’s no way their life can get weirder from this point, they think. And while, true, their life has been awfully strange, especially in the last half sweep, it’s not until a large meteor rolls into one of their bubbles that things _really_ get weird.

The concept itself of a meteor hurtling through empty paradox space is strange to begin with, and Solern is bored and curious enough to be instantly drawn onto it. The ground seems to rumble when **he** steps onto it, but the tremors stop after a moment. The meteor is quite small, containing just enough room for a large building, which looks kind of like a laboratory. To get a feel for the situation, Solern turns invisible, and heads inside.

All interior walls of the lab are gray and bland, giving Solern the creeps right away. He keeps an eye out for any trolls, drones, or signs of life at all. Lights are on, so it must not be completely abandoned? He passes a computer room that catches his interest. There’s no living beings inside, but lots of other interesting things to investigate. A pile of clown horns, indicating the possible presence of a purpleblood around. That’s important to note. Also, splashes of blood on the floor - jade, fuschia, and violet. What in the world happened, and why were there so many highbloods here? Even a fucking fuscia, are you kidding me? Gold blood paints a portion of the wall, and drags away a small bit. Solern touches some of the blood, and finds that it’s all dried so much that it’s flaking, so he figures that the strife that occurred here must not have been recent.

Other parts of the lab aren’t as interesting. Empty rooms, lots of hallways and staircases. One particular stairwell is covered in bronze blood, and you wonder if he was warned about stairs. Another room has drips of indigo and violet blood as well as large pools of olive blood stained on the floor, looking about as old as the other ones. Holy shit, a whole damn rainbow was massacred here.

Voices are gently heard from the end of the hall, so Solern double-checks that he’s invisible, and slides up to the doorway. As he approaches it, he hears two distinct voices: one looks teal, alright she’s a wild card, don’t know how she’ll be, and one- holy shit that’s red! And it’s too bright to be rust! He excitedly peeks his head into the room, and gasps slightly. What the everliving fuck is that?!

The room itself appears to be a small common room, with some chairs, tables, and a big red sofa. The tealblood sits on the couch, wearing a big toothy smile and red glasses. They make her look blind. But judging from the dragon-headed cane rested against the sofa arm, she probably is. While she’s plenty interesting to look at, it’s the figure beside her that knocked Solern’s breath out of him.

It would be wrong to say that the guy is sitting, as he’s more draped over the couch in a ridiculous fashion, practically sitting upside-down in a position that can’t be comfortable. He wears bright red pajamas which bear a gear-looking symbol, round black sunglasses, and- light brown skin? Pale yellow hair? Does he even have horns at all, or are they just impossibly tiny? The boy looks like a troll in most other ways; he has two arms and two legs, though his are lanky and look fragile. He seems to be tall, though it’s hard to tell from the angle he’s at. He looks positively alien, or maybe he’s just a troll going through an incredibly weird fashion phase. That has to be makeup, right? No one’s skin is that color. Could it be because of his blood? I’ve never seen a mutant look THAT different!

All these thoughts happen in an instant, which is just enough for Solern’s scent to reach Terezi’s nostrils. One sniff, and she sits straight up. Dave continues rambling about whatever topic his train of thought is chugging through right now, and doesn’t notice until the troll girl shushes him loudly.

“Jegus, Dave, _shut up!_” Her voice is nasally and energetic in tone, almost sparking. The human tilts his head at her and surprisingly obeys her request. Solern distractedly steps into the room as quietly as he can to get a better look at this strange character.

“Who are you?" Terezi demands, on her feet now. Solern’s eyes go wide as his attention snaps back to the normal-looking troll who’s looking _straight towards him_. He holds his breath in case she can hear real well or something like that. Dave sits up and looks at the doorway, then all around the room, searching for anyone she could be talking to.

“Uhh, Terezi, there’s no one here. Did you get a whiff of something? Damn, maybe Karkat’s trying to cook again, and if that’s going on we better evacuate or find the fire extinguisher fucking asap-” Terezi slaps her hand over his mouth to shut him up. He licks her palm in resistance, then rolls his eyes when it doesn’t phase her in the slightest. He almost forgot that she licks things like its an Olympic sport she needs to win gold in so she can impress her home country.

“Who are you?” she says again, slower, but with the same amount of edge. Solern silently backs up to the nearest wall of the room, grips it with his hands, and climbs up it until he’s almost at the ceiling.

Terezi stomps up, cane in hand, to the exact spot where Solern ascended from. She looks up at him, dead in the eyes - or close enough. Solern’s pulse races and he looks down at himself to confirm that his powers are in fact working. And, yep, he’s totally invisible. Not being able to see your own body was a really difficult thing to get accustomed to when he was younger, but now he’s used to it, and oh so thankful for it. The other in the room confirms that his invisibility is indeed flipped on by seeming oblivious so Solern's presence.

“Dude, what are you looking at? Is there a bug on the wall or something? If there's a spider it isn't Vriska, I'll tell you that right now,” Dave states in his monotone red voice, sitting up properly now, starting to get concerned at his friend’s seriousness. She does like to fuck with him a good amount, but he can always hear the sassy prankster tone in her voice when she does it. That tone is definitely not there now.

Terezi swivels her head back to Dave, but her cane points up at Solern threateningly. “Don’t joke with me here, funny guy. Do you really not see anyone up there?” No, neither of you should!

Dave cocks his head to the side slightly, raising an eyebrow. “Noooo. Why, what do you see?”

She turns back around. Solern is staying as still as possible, holding his breath with every ounce of lung capacity he has, but is now regretting his decision to do so, since letting the breath go will be louder than if he had just stuck to slow breaths.

“_I_ see,” Terezi starts snarkily, “someone I’ve never seen before. On this rock, in dream bubbles, even unlike anyone I met whole life on Alternia.”

What the fuck what the fuck how the FUCK can she see me? How can she see anything, for that matter? Not only is she blind, but I’m invisible, so that’s like double-not-seeing-me! Wait, do they cancel each other out somehow? Am I actually visible to her when I’m like this? I’m not risking showing myself and finding out, since this alien guy can definitely see normally, and I don’t want to find out what he can do.

“Troll or human?” Dave asks. What in god’s name is a human? Terezi breathes in deeply.

“I think I smell troll, but it’s… different.” Ohh, so her sense of smell is super heightened. Fucking PERFECT! Some tealblood who can see me no matter what I do! Just what I needed.

Solern looks around desperately for a way out, one that ideally doesn’t have him touching back on the ground where the girl can easily get him. On the wall about arm’s length to his left is a vent, plenty big enough for him to fit into. And the cover is even off! He starts to believe in the miracles that the juggalos always talk about.

He crawls over to the vent and climbs inside, scuttling away deep into the vent shafts before he can hear anything else from the weird alien and the extremely dangerous troll. Some distance in, he hears a quiet but drawn-out _honk_ from deeper in the shafts. Alright, nope, nope nope nopety NO! I am getting the fuck off this meteor and back into the regular dream bubbles where things make some sort of sense!!

He hurries to the nearest vent to exit, and drops ungracefully into a _thankfully_ empty hallway. He runs around to find the doors he came in through, but the halls are now acting as more of a maze. The plain, unmarked walls and way too many fucking staircases seem to be taunting him. He panics, but doesn’t submit to the anxiety, and instead uses the adrenaline to move faster to find some sort of exit. He finally tries a door that ends up being the right one, leading to the cold outside. He runs out, looks up, and immediately collapses onto his knees into defeat.

There’s nothing above him. No stars, no sky, no clouds, no Skia, no moons or planets, no bubbles. It... looks like he’s not even in a bubble currently. As if he boarded this rock as it passed through the last one, and he somehow stayed on it as it left. Above him is endless nothingness, just void as far as the eye can see. He’s hurtling through empty paradox space with the rest of these weirdo bastards and whatever murderers killed those previous trolls. Unlucky events and hopeless feelings seem to follow this troll wherever he runs to.

After throwing himself a small pity party outside the lab, Solern decides to head back inside and investigate a little further into what areas were safe and unsafe within the lab. And to find out which people were unsafe or _really_ unsafe to be near. But he would do so from the partial safety of the vent shafts this time, since he can't rely on his invisibility to completely protect him anymore. As he explores, he makes sure to listen carefully for the clown that also seemed to reside there, but lucky for him the purpleblood honked wherever he went, so you could hear him coming a mile away.

Over the next few days, unrest grew between the crew members of the meteor. The tealblood kept smelling the strange troll in the vents, but no one believed her. Dave thought she was having _smellucinations_, as he called them, and Karkat was concerned that she had been back to drinking too heavily. Rose admittedly had felt something shift in the atmosphere on the meteor right at the time Solern boarded, but thought it too unlikely for some random strange troll to get on and stay on while outside of the bubbles. Kanaya predictably agreed with Rose.

Terezi was most hurt by Karkat’s reaction, actually. He talked to her like she was a wiggler, eventually settling on telling her he’d keep an eye out for anything suspicious. She knew there was no truth to that.

Solern camped out in the vents for a while, spying on some of the members of the weird crew, but getting the hell out of dodge when the blind or clown ones were anywhere near. He only emerged to steal some food from the kitchen or some books from the library to keep himself entertained. About half of the books were in Alternian, while the other half were in a language the humans called English, which he had learned to speak but never read. English - under a different name - was a language used in lots of parts of Alternia, none of which Solern had stayed in long enough to thoroughly learn the symbols of.

He learned that there were two of these aliens on the ship. They were different sizes and colors, but had the same bright hair color and lack of horns, so he assumed they were of the same species. They seemed to be close to each other, referring to themselves as “brother” and “sister”. Such terms were usually ones of endearment used by those creeps in face-paint, but Solern assumed that they must mean something different in whatever society these kids grew up in. The rounder, darker one who seems close to the jadeblood has a lilac sort of voice, which matches her eyes, the same color Reglus had when he whispered. Such memories bring a pang to Solern’s heart, which he quietly pushes down. Solern silently wonders if the aliens’ blood is actually the color of their voice like it is for trolls, and what caste systems might be like on other planets.

There were four trolls on board as well, he counted. They were casted jade, teal, purple, and candy red (Solern wishes that he could disregard the caste system entirely and just see trolls as trolls, but noting how high or low others were has been imperative to his safety). The mutant one was loud and seemed to be their leader, which was very interesting, and if Solern was ever in a tight spot he might be able to use that as a bit of leverage. The purple one in the vents ironically seemed the most hostile, with the jade obviously being the most gentle. Though, I did see her with a chainsaw once? And I could’ve sworn there were violet stains on it.

There was another curious character on the ship, who mostly kept to one room. He was a small fellow, dressed in what appeared to be an old dirty sheet, and a sash with some English word written on it. He seemed to lead an imaginary town he created with chalk and cans of food and soda. All the inhabitants of the crew appeared to get along with him, going to see him multiple times a day in his small town. He had much love for his town and his friends. It was the most wholesome thing that Solern had ever seen.

Almost a week went by with no further incidents, besides close encounters with the two trolls he was trying desperately to avoid any further contact with. Solern didn’t learn a lot about the crew members. Even though he loves to observe people, he’s too scared of the troll that can see through his powers, so he mostly stays deep in the vent shafts away from occupied rooms. The involuntary hitchhiker knew that he couldn’t stay there forever, but hopefully these trolls had a destination or a bubble they’d soon cross paths with so that he wouldn’t have to be faced with this for long.

Though, he soon gets too curious about these aliens to stay away for long, and decides to watch them - as long as teal girl isn’t anywhere to be seen. This choice, however, leads to everything he had been avoiding.

He lounges against the grate of a vent leading to a room where the male (at least I think he’s a guy?) human and mutant blood sit with the mayor in his adorable town. Solern watches them play pretend for a while, even though the troll and alien are annoying, since they talk _non-stop_, even over the sweet little mayor. They don’t let him get a word in, but he doesn’t seem to mind at all. Then, the blonde boy takes the mayor outside the room, supposedly on municipal business to get some snacks. Solern watches the nubby-horned troll arrange some cans in an organized pattern of some sort, grumbling and cursing whenever he accidentally knocked one over. He sure is crabby, isn’t he?

The very idea of Karkat baffles Solern. How does he have all these friends, even being their damn leader, with blood like that? Do any of them know? He doesn’t look too scared of them finding out. Actually, Solern, it might just be you that cowers away from everyone as your method of survival. Don’t act surprised that some trolls are braver than you.

Solern’s thoughts are interrupted as **they** feel a breath on the back of their neck, and turn around as fast as lightning, clapping a hand over their own mouth to muffle the shocked gasp that escaped from it. Leaning towards them is the clown in all his glory. He’s breathing heavily with his mouth open in a deranged smile, drooling a little bit onto Solern’s lap. Fucking gross! His hair is large and as crazy as his thinkpan seems to be, jagged bloody slashes cover his face, and he has long wavy horns that are pretty typical for someone of his caste. He wears a dumb hat and alarmingly perverted codpiece with his purple pajamas.

The limeblood turns invisible out of instinct, but Gamzee grabs their arm and looks down at it. He feels a sleeve and drags it up, now holding bare skin. He extends his claws on both his hands, the one on Solern’s arm digging in painfully, the other hand dragging one claw slowly down their arm, from the inside of their elbow to their wrist. Solern hisses as silently as they can, occasionally glancing back at Karkat through the grate to make sure he hasn’t noticed the going-ons up here. Solern can’t move - they’re helpless... no escape, no crying out for help, no fighting back. Not without risk of this somehow getting way worse, anyways. Gamzee seems to be trying to be quiet too.

With Solern invisible, no one can see the blood quickly dripping from the gash on their arm, but oh boy can they feel it. Gamzee sweeps his hand over the cut, drawing another hiss from Solern, and looks at his hand. With the blood no longer on the limeblood, it’s perfectly visible, its color vibrant even in the low light. Gamzee chuckles low. He brings it to his nose and takes a deep breath, much to Solern’s disgust. Since the clown has no eyes to look into, he looks down at the green contraband on his hand and growls with a smile, “We have big plans for a troll like you, sourblood. Big plans!”

That last bit came out like a shout, which gets Karkat’s attention. He stands and faces the vent. “Gamzee?” he calls out.

Solern realizes their time is running out before they’re found, or worse. So they decide that now is the time to start fighting back. They take one of Gamzee’s arms in their hands, raises it to their mouth, extends their fangs, and bites down as hard as they can. Their teeth get in deep, and they can taste the disgusting purple blood gushing into their mouth. They know that if they were to yank their head back, it would rip this chunk out of the clown’s arm, but they’re hoping that just this will make the guy back off. However, Gamzee just throws his head back and howls with laughter, the occasional honk interrupting like a snort would. Solern’s eyes grow wide in shock. This guy is a fucking psychopath!

Gamzee uses the arm in Solern’s mouth to ram their head back against the vent grate, making it fall to the ground into Can Town below. Karkat jumps back in surprise, then peers up into the vent. He can’t see anything, as the vent is too high up the tall walls, and he is anything but tall.

Solern sees their options dwindling, and redirects their adrenaline from fight to flight, since they’ve always been more of a coward than a warrior. They release the clown’s arm, roll down their sleeve, and slide on their hood, all in one fluid motion. They then dive backwards out of the vent, landing on their front side with a grunt. Karkat jumps back again with a shout, hearing a body suddenly hit the floor right in front of him. Solern’s invisibility flashes out of order as the tumble hurt more than it should’ve, giving Karkat his first look at this stranger that he had doubted even existed. But Solern gets up quickly, holding their cut arm with their other hand, and booking it out of the room and down the hall before either of the boys could get their bearings on what the fuck just happened. Karkat yells at the stranger to stop and starts to chase them down, all the while chastising himself for taking this long to realize that Terezi was right and he really should take her more seriously. But he quickly realizes that the hooded troll is faster than him, and is also switching their powers back on so that Karkat can no longer even see the guy he’s chasing. He turns and runs in a different direction, towards Terezi’s respiteblock, mumbling obscenities along the way. As he approaches her door, he screams at the top of his lungs for her to get her ass out here and help him put the lab on lockdown.

Elsewhere in the lab, Solern is sprinting down the labyrinth of hallways. Fuck, fuck, okay, they saw me, they fucking saw me, and that deranged one drew my goddamn blood and really doesn’t seem as cool as Reglus was with it! Running was a decent plan, now just hide, and they’ll stop looking for you eventually.

They dip into an empty room and close the door to a crack, leaving it the way it was when they found it. Alright, cool, good, they’ll never know I'm here. They can’t search every room, right? And if I hear them getting close, I’ll sneak out. It’s fine. It’s under control.

The situation is neither fine, nor under control. This is evident when the door suddenly slams shut on its own behind Solern, locks with a loud _clang_, and the dim lights turn off completely. While Solern’s eyes adjust to the darkness, they only see the voice pouring from the speakers inside the room.

“_Attention everyone! Turns out I was right about there being a new addition to our motley crew. Surprise, you all should have listened to me about something for once! The building has been put on lockdown while we find this invisible squeakbeast. Sorry for the inconvenience, everyone. Except you, coward. We’re coming for you._”

Solern whimpers at the threat and tries to open the door with all their strength, but it’s no use. That shit is bolted shut. They look around, Alternian night vision suddenly kicking in. Isn’t that perfect? I picked the one room without any goddamn vents.

They wait for what feels like hours, but is probably not even one. They’ve never been good at keeping track of time anyway. They’re just lost in their thoughts and they start to pace around the room. Their fear turns to boredom as they wonder how long they’ll have to wait before they’re either found or they find a way to escape.

Then, voices from down the hall answer that question. The fear returns to be Solern’s dominating emotion.

"_Hold on, I think I smell it down here._”

"_You keep saying that-_”

"_No, I’m serious! It’s getting stronger._”

"_Are you sure it’s them? Maybe it’s just-_”

"_I’m certain of it._”

Footsteps walk straight pass Solern’s door, and they sigh with relief. Then, the footsteps stop. No no no keep going that way-!

"_Why’d you stop?_”

“_It’s not over here. We passed it. It must be that room._”

Footsteps approach Solern’s door and stop, as does their heart. They skitter up the wall into the corner of the ceiling, and focus on becoming as invisible as they possibly can.

“_It’s definitely this room!_”

“_Alright, I’m going in then._”

“_Excuse me, that would be tampering with the investigation!_”

“_Look Terezi, I don’t know who the fuck or what the fuck is behind that door, but I’m checking it out before you do your interrogation._” Then, lower. “_I don’t want you getting hurt._”

Solern hears a smack.

“_W-What the flying shitdick was that for?!_”

“_Don’t talk to me like I need protection! Fine, you want to talk to the weird troll instead of having ME do it? You know, the one who can actually see the guy? Be my guest!_”

Footsteps stomp away, but only one set.

After a short pause, some beeping and mechanical whirrs are heard, then the door is opened. Karkat slips inside and quickly, closing the door behind him before anything could have the chance to sneak out. He’s seemingly alone in a seemingly empty room, but he trusts Terezi enough to make a fool out of himself and talk to the emptiness.

“Fuck, I really hope she was right…” he mumbles to himself. Then he stands up straighter, a sickle in one hand, the other balled up into a fist. He looks around, then addresses the room confidently. “Show yourself, you shitbagging cretinous coward! My job is to beat you to a goddamn pulp so that my associate can interrogate you further, without all this shitbagging hiding hoofbeastshit!”

Solern breathes in shallow breaths, using one hand to grip the cut still bleeding from their left arm, and struggling to stay on the wall with only three limbs. They stay absolutely silent.

“Look, you fucking pungent column of hot fuck you,” Karkat continues, (Wow, he’s really worked up) “I could let you stay locked in here and just allow you to fucking starve to death, but I don’t have that kind of patience. I barely get enough goddamn sleep as it is, let alone knowing some random cactus-fucking shitstain is living here. So how about I grab some fucking fire fluid and some strikesticks, and see if you’re up for showing your scumbag face then.” With a huff, he turns towards the door. Solern’s eyes go wide, and without further thought, they become visible again and shout.

“W-Wait!” They didn’t fully think this through, but knowing a few of the batshit trolls on this rock, they don’t doubt that this one won’t make due on his promises.

Karkat spins around, sickle at the ready. He looks around, then up. His eyes narrow as he sees the troll up on the wall like an annoying spider. He takes in their hoodie, jeans, shoes, and beanie, all light colors but not a color scheme that tells of their caste in any obvious way. They have one hand clutching the opposite forearm, something dark staining the gray sleeve. Something dark is around their mouth as well, but he can’t see it too clearly. He also notices that they spoke in Alternian, so he switches his language into the same. It sounds a little foreign in his mouth from all the English he’s been speaking, but the hums and clicks become familiar after a few seconds. Swearing sounds better in Alternian anyway.

“Get the everliving fuck down from there, you obnoxious fuckballoon!” he shrieks, and runs closer to where they are. It’s from this distance that he can see the purple coating their teeth, lips, and chin. His eyes go wide. “Oh god, what did you do to Gamzee?!” his voice cracks on the name as his mind races through the most graphic possibilities. He briefly regrets not checking the vents before running after this guy.

Solern wipes their blood-stained chin on their shoulder, eager to forget the gross fiasco. “The clown in the vents? I-It was self defense, the guy’s a freak. He’s fine. I'm less fine, thanks for asking.” They try to keep their voice steady, but fail. If I can’t run, hide, or fight, I guess I could try to talk my way out of here. He’s a mutant, so he might be understanding. Or at least susceptible to blackmail, if I have to stoop that low.

Karkat breathes a sigh of relief, but goes right back to being furious. “What the fuck are you doing on my ship taking bites out of my fucking friends? Who gave you the fuckshitting right?!” he shrieks. He starts getting really annoyed with them being so up high. “And get _down_ from there, I swear to god. How much of a pathetic, douchbagging, shit crisp do you have to be to just run and hide all the time?” Wow, this dude’s language is as colorful as the blood stains around this lab. I’m almost impressed.

“And let you shred me? Nah, ’m fine up here,” they scoff. That just makes the mutant growl, and they continue, “Look, ’m no threat to you and your weird crew. Want off this thing as much as you want me off, if not more so. Drop me off at the nearest dream bubble, and no more worries.”

He laughs harshly. “No more worries? Do you know who you’re talking to, fuckface? You’ve already caused me so much goddamn strain, I feel a cluster migraine coming on already! Also, not a threat? Not a threat! Tell that to Gamzee, douchefuck! I’ve known you for half a shit-blistering second and you’ve already done so much fucking damage to me and my friends. I hate you way too much to just let you leave without beating some answers out of you!”

Solern raises an eyebrow and tries not to smirk. “You hate me that much?” They know this is pushing it, but they've been lucky so far, and maybe this kid will exert all his energy until he's not a threat anymore.

“Not like _that_, you pretentious fuckhole! My hate for you is fucking platonic and pure!” he screams, cheeks darkening. He turns around again to hide it. “Screw you. I don't have to deal with this. There’s still some unbroken bows and arrows around, which god knows I’ve had plenty of time to practice with, so I’ll get you down one way or another.”

“Woah woah woah,” Solern slides halfway down the wall, half intentionally. Karkat looks back at them, his gaze daring Solern to convince him to change his mind. “Wasn’t lying when I said ’m not a bad guy. Got on this rock out of curiosity when you passed through a bubble I was in, and somehow stayed on when you left it. Just want to get back to the bubbles, or even Alternia if that’s nearby. _Promise_ I don’t want to be here with you deranged trolls and your weird horn-less trolls with the tan skin and blonde hair. There’s your answers, okay?”

Karkat storms up to Solern again. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? Oh, right, I don’t. I have to trust some troll I’ve never fucking seen who just appeared on a goddamn rock flying through mother fucking paradox space!! How do you fucking expect me to trust someone I don’t know jack bulge about and let you take one step out of this room?”

They look down and shrug, preparing to play the one card they have up their sleeve. “We’re more alike than you think.”

“And what exactly does that mean?”

“Similar insecurities?"

“More fucking specific,” he demands.

Solern looks him dead in the eyes. “Blood.”

Karkat blinks a few times. “What, the aspect?”

“No, what? The shit running through our veins!”

Karkat opens his mouth, then closes it. His eyes widen with understanding, and his grip on his weapon loosens so he isn’t white-knuckling it quite as hard. His voice lowers.

“You have c-” he stops, realizing they might not actually know his caste. “Wait, what the fuck is yours?”

“Dude, did you not hear me say it’s an insecurity? People don’t typically like talking about insecurities.”

He frowns again, thinking they’re probably messing with him. Karkat thinks over possible consequences of different options he has here, as Solern gets more scared that his empathy isn’t strong enough to let them live. The hesitation to cull me on the spot is a bit hopeful I guess?

“I can't drop you back off at Alternia,” Karkat finally says.

“Come on, please? Know it isn't heaven but it's better than-”

“No I mean I literally can't. It’s gone, dumbass.”

There’s a pause. “What?”

“Alternia is destroyed. It has been for, like, a sweep now,” he states matter-of-factly. Solern’s eyes go wide as his words sink in. “I guess you wouldn’t know that from living in the bubbles,” he mumbles to himself. "Hey, are you going to tell me how that works by the fucking way? How did we pick up a stowaway from a goddamn dream bubble?" He continues demanding answers, but Solern's stopped listening.

They look down in disbelief, mouth slightly open with a thousand unspoken questions. They slide completely down the wall onto the floor, no longer caring about the consequences of being on the same level as Karkat, and cover their head with their hands.

Sure, Alternia treated them like shit. It was the worst world they could imagine living in, but it had everything they had ever known there. It’s hard to let go of things that were such a big part of your life, even if they hurt you really badly. After all the sweeps of them yearning to be anywhere else in the galaxy rather than Alternia, even preferring death at some points, thinking of it all gone feels like a punch to the gut. Since they got to the dream bubbles, Solern had been hoping to find some way to get back. But now, they have to face saying a permanent goodbye to everything from their past: the community that raised them, the other trolls they’d met, Reglus. Oh god, Reglus. Did he even survive the drones for long enough to see the planet get destroyed?

“Who’s left?” Solern asks weakly. “Who survived?”

Karkat huffs and crosses his arms, frustrated at how little Solern is telling him. But he complies anyway. “Just us. And The Condense, because why would the universe ever make anything easy for us?” He mostly says that last bit to himself, becoming alarmed by the way Solern seems to be crumbled on the ground. They’re finally down the wall now, so now’s his chance to attack or capture them, but he’s frozen in place. He didn’t expect to be the one to break the news to them. He musters up some more anger to compensate, which isn’t hard for him, and once again demands answers. “That still gets on its knees and begs the question of how you escaped it though. If you’re from the dream bubbles, you’re either already fucking dead or you’re sleeping. One of those doesn’t look likely because you still have eyes, and the other is impossible. Both of which, I’ll remind you, resulting in you not being able to leave the damn things!”

Solern ignores the rant again - they wouldn’t know how to explain that anyway. Their mind lingers on his answer like flies around feces. Just them. Just these four weird kids, and the evil genocidal battawitch. No other trolls alive. The thoughts make Solern’s stomach flip. At this point, they don’t care if they’re going to be killed here. There’s no future for them anymore. No home to even daydream of returning to.

Karkat awkwardly stares at the troll currently having a mental breakdown on the floor in front of him. A part of him wants to comfort them or talk about it, but doesn’t want to come off pale, especially after being teased for seeming pitch before. This whole thing might also be a trick, but they’d have to be a fairly decent actor to be pulling this off.

“You’re not going to explain yourself?! Say something, you tight-lipped prick!”

“What’s the point?”

Karkat finds it very hard to stay furious when a troll is this depressed in front of him. And that’s saying something, since he’s always furious. “The point, asshole, is to convince me not to slice you open right now, and find out if we really do bleed the same color!”

“Go ahead.”

“Fuck. Are you serious right now?” No answer. His heart breaks, and his empathy dominates over every rational screaming voice in his mind. “Fine. So you just… deal with that. Process it with whatever fucked up coping mechanisms you choose. Just don’t eat our food, don’t touch our shit, don’t interact with any of us. Stay out of sight, and you’re getting tossed out at the first dream bubble we cross into. Got it?” When he sees that he still won’t get an answer, and hears a shuddering breath that indicates tears approaching, he turns and leaves, taking the ship off of lockdown. He warns the others of the ship to avoid this unknown troll, and chastises himself for not getting more info about them during their conversation. No explanation for why an awake and alive troll is living in dream bubbles, how they didn’t know about Alternia, or even their name. His heart burns black for past Karkat.

Once recovering from the world-shattering news of their home planet being destroyed, Solern tries to obey the mutant’s orders of avoiding everyone. They walk the meteor outside of the lab, they go as long as they can without eating or touching any of the books or computers inside. While they’re used to being alone, they don’t like being so bored. So after a day of doing nothing, they call it a good faith effort and head back into the vents with a book and a snack from the kitchen.

And of course, they spy a lot more on the inhabitants of the meteor. They learn all of the characters’ names, and some snippets of their story. Looks like they’re off to fight The Condense as well as a few other enemies, meaning Solern has to get the fuck off this ship before they arrive at their suicide mission.

One night, Solern finds themselves in a vent that leads into what they assume to be Karkat’s respiteblock. The room is dark, only lit by the glow of a husktop on which Karkat is watching a movie alone. He’s sitting on a small pile of sweaters, the husktop on the floor in front of him, facing away from them. Solern’s vent isn’t too far off the ground of this room, about eye-level if you’re standing, and the angle is just so that Karkat’s head is blocking the view of the screen. So Solern just listens to the movie for a while. It’s not one they’ve seen before, and uses a lot of strange terms, so it might be from the aliens’ collection. It starts off kind of cheesy, some sort of romance film, but Solern quickly becomes attached to the characters. Karkat occasionally mumbles some criticisms about the film as it rolls on, and Solern closes their eyes to try to imagine what’s happening in each scene. Romance films have always been a guilty pleasure of theirs, providing fuel for daydreams they like to indulge themselves in.

One scene however, where two characters that had been searching for each other finally meet, is very quiet. Karkat gasps and leans forward, his fluffy hair leaving no pixel to be visible to Solern. But they look on anyway, frustrated that they can’t see what’s happening in the silent scene.

C’mon, just move over a liiiitle bit!

Karkat’s head snaps around and looks straight at them. Oh hell, I must’ve said that out loud. Whoops.

As he scrambles out of his pile, hitting a button that pauses the movie, Solern turns invisible and holds as still as they can, knowing they don’t have time to shimmy back out into other shafts.

“What the hell-” he grumbles as he gets up, then shouts, “are you fucking spying on me?!”

He approaches the vent and peers inside, glowing yellow eyes searching the dark empty space. His eyes sweep over the invisible Solern, and he bangs the vent in frustration, making them jump.

“Damn it, quit doing that!” He turns around and searches the room for something to block the vent with.

“Hey, wait, just wanted to watch the movie! It seemed interesting!” Solern stammers out as Karkat pins a poster over the vent, completely obscuring Solern’s view of the room. But his voice is still as clear as ever.

“_Do you not have any goddamn manners? Are you fucking feral? You don’t just watch some guy be alone in his room! Go away!!_” He bangs on the vent again for emphasis, and Solern hears some shuffling in the room as Karkat plugs in earbuds and resumes the movie away from the eyes and ears of the spy. Defeated, Solern backs out into the maze of vents, and makes his way to find something else interesting. They could watch Kanaya and Rose, but they’re rather boring, and the way they look at each other when their backs are turned but they never actually make a move is so aggravating. Terezi is the one Solern does everything to avoid (along with Gamzee, whose honks send sharp pains right into Solern’s arm which is still recovering). Maybe they could go back to check on the Mayor? Absolutely. See what the little guy is up to.

Solern ends up in the same vent that the clown attacked them in. While they hate being in that spot again, with dried lime and purple blood staining the floor - thank god no one else comes up here \- their favorite member of the meteor is in the room below. The Mayor stands proud above his town of cans. Dave is there too, and the mayor is using hand gestures to indicate what he wants Dave to do. The way they interact is… very strange. Solern observes time and time again as Dave asks clarification about what the Mayor wants him to do, and the Mayor explains it to him along with grand gestures of his hands, and Dave still doesn’t seem to understand.

“You want this can over here?”

“No, you daft boy! That is the library, it has no place in the middle of that neighborhood!”

“What about here? It’s a house, right? It should go with the other houses, unless you want it isolated over here. Who lives there, some hermit?”

Their strange interactions baffle Solern, but they’re entertaining nonetheless. Some joke Dave makes causes Solern to make a little chuckle, and they cover their mouth in horror that they made a sound. Dave didn’t seem to hear, but the Mayor looks up at the vent.

“Hm, I think I heard something. Who’s up there?” he wonders to himself. Dave follows his gaze to the vent, and stands, approaching it.

“Gamzee? Is that your honking ass up there?” he asks the vent, eyes narrowing behind his shades. He used to think the clown was funny, but after learning of his murders he’s extremely protective of the members of the ship against him, while acknowledging that they’re adults who can decide who they want to spend time with (_cough cough Terezi_). Solern stays quiet, hoping they’ll think it was nothing.

Dave turns to the Mayor, who’s remarkably shorter than him. “Did you hear something from from the vents lil’ guy?” he asks. The Mayor nods. The human turns back to the vent, trying again, figuring that the juggalo would have responded. “Who’s sneaking through the vents? Wait, is it the new troll that Terezi and Karkat keep talking about?”

Solern doesn’t know what to think of the alien, or whether to trust him. He’s awfully funny and an excellent wordsmith, even though a lot of what he says makes no sense to them. He seems nice enough, rather understanding, and seems to be working through a lot of feelings he has for a lot of different people such as Karkat, Terezi, Rose, and someone named Dirk. Solern’s heard some of his private conversations with the Mayor, even though they feel sort of bad for eavesdropping. Though, this might be Solern’s only chance to learn about this alien species. And talking to one face-to-face would certainly be an experience. So they sigh, and respond.

“Y-Yeah. New troll,” is all that their mind offers up in terms of words. Their English is heavy with Alternian accent, with some consonants sounding more like clicks and some vowels more like hums.

“And you’re spying on top-secret Can Town business? Not cool dude,” he replies without hesitation. There’s no bite in his voice, they think, but it’s not clear when he does mean what he says since his voice doesn’t have the usual rises and falls of emotion.

“Was bored, sorry,” they mumble, and move to scoot out and find somewhere else to hide. Dave just shrugs, internally dying to know more about this mystery troll.

“It’s fine, we weren’t actually working on anything classified. Just some standard housing redistribution.”

“Library! Not house!”

“Do you want to join in?” Dave asks. This makes Solern stop, and face the vent again. The human uses this as an invitation to continue. “I mean, if you want to. There’s no obligation to hang with the coolest guys on the entire meteor, running the most efficient town in existence with the best democracy and democratically-elected mayor.” The Mayor beams at this. “Plus I’ve kinda been wanting to meet you. My galaxy-sized brain deduced that that was probably you that Terezi was sniffing like a week ago, and ever since then I’ve heard some wicked fuckin’ rumors. Everything from you being a nuisance to a killing machine that I need to avoid at all costs, but I guess all trolls are in some way.”

“‘M not a killer. ‘M the one trying to avoid being killed.”

“Even better. Cause if you tried anything on my friends, _especially_ the mayor here, you’d be dead yesterday, I can fuckin’ promise you that. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye…” As his rhymes continue and become more gruesome and convoluted, Solern weighs their options. They decide they’d like to get to know these different sorts of people before they leave to live in the lonely dream bubbles again.

“Sure, 'll join,” they say finally, ending Dave’s rambles. Solern puts their hands on the vent, hesitant to push it off onto the floor. Dave notices, and floats up to the vent. Solern is startled, even though they’ve seen such magic occur already in the aliens, but also by him coming so close. He plucks the vent off the wall and sets it gently on the floor. When he floats back up to help Solern out, he finds them crawling out of the vent and sticking to the wall to climb down.

“Woah, can all trolls do that wall-grab thing? I don’t think I’ve seen any of the others do it.”

“Don’t think so,” Solern mumbles, watching their footing as they reach the floor. When they get there, they stand awkwardly, shoving their hands in the pocket of their hoodie and shifting their weight foot to foot. Dave touches down too.

“I’m Dave, and this little dude is the one and only Mayor,” he gestures to the carpician, who waves and greets them. "Save all photos for the meet 'n' greet, he's a very popular guy."

“Oh, uh, hi. ‘M Solern.” They offer a small two-fingered wave, then return the hand to their pocket.

“Cool name. But I guess all the trolls have pretty rad names. And they’re all six letters, have you ever noticed that?” he rambles on some more about troll names, Solern watching in amazement as words just pour from his mouth with seemingly no effort. The irony of Dave admiring their six-lettered name is not lost on them as they think back to what their name used to be. Dave eventually gestures down to the stacked cans and chalk drawings, and introduces the troll to Can Town. He kneels down, and shows them what he was just working on.

“So, see, I was moving this house over here since the Mayor apparently wants someone to live in the middle of downtown Tab Street-”

“That’s the library,” Solern interrupts quietly. The Mayor shoots his head up at her, and Dave looks up quizzically.

“How did you know that, child? That building wasn’t yet labeled.”

“What? No dude, I’m pretty sure it’s a house, since it’s chili and the sauces are always houses,” Dave says, talking over the Mayor.

Solern raises an eyebrow and gestures to the Mayor with their head. “But he said it’s a library, ‘cause he doesn’t count chili as a sauce.”

Dave’s eyes widen. “What do you mean ‘he said’?” The Mayor gets visibly excited.

“What!! Are you saying you can hear me?”

Solern looks between the two and nods slowly, confused as all hell. “Yeeeah? Why is this a big deal?” Dave grabs them by the arms, and Solern gets scared quickly, thinking maybe they did something wrong.

“Do _not_ fuck with me on this, can you really hear what the Mayor is saying?” He’s dead serious. Solern just nods, since though Dave is harder to read, the mayor is making it seem like this is great news.

“Holy shit,” the human whispers, letting go of the troll. The Mayor is practically jumping up and down at this point.

“This is incredible! You must translate my words at once!” his purple words curl through the air. It’s a different purple than purple- or violet-bloods, and has a gray undertone to it.

“Uh, h-he wants me to translate what he’s saying,” Solern obeys. The carapacian clasps his hands together in joy.

“Oh _fuck_ yes, I’m dying to know what he has to say. All this time I didn’t think I’d ever be able to know what he’s saying, but now I have a literal Mayor translator right here in front of me, I can’t believe this. Gamzee was right, miracles are real. Please, dude, please tell me what he has to say.” Both boys look at Solern expectantly, which makes them very uncomfortable. They don’t like so much attention on them, and they involuntarily curl up to make themselves smaller. They were hoping to just quietly sit back and watch them work on their town. Why can’t the human hear him anyway? Dave addresses the Mayor, sensing Solern’s discomfort. “What do you want to tell me now that I can hear it? I’m sure you have a lot to say after all the shit I’ve dumped on you,” he asks eagerly.

The Mayor speaks, Solern listens, and they nod. Dave turns to them, his heart pounding. The troll repeats back what he said.

“He says he’s proud of you.”

The human sits there, still and silent. The Mayor calls out his name, and Solern does the same.

“Dave?”

Tears start silently falling from behind his shades, but Solern doesn’t recognize them at first since the tears are clear instead of whatever blood color he has.

“Dave?” they repeat softly, concern washing over their expression. He just sits there as the tears drip onto his lap.

“I-I’m fine. Perfect, actually. That was just the nicest thing I’ve ever heard get said. Wasn’t expecting that, ‘s all.” If not for the voice crack at the beginning there, he could’ve pulled off his voice sounding like he actually wasn’t extremely unraveled by that confession.

After Dave excused himself for a few minutes, leaving Solern to empathize with the Mayor who’s had to gone this whole time with no one understanding him for some reason, he returns with a puffy red face and the occasional quiet sniffle which the others carefully don’t point out. They continue working on Can Town, but it’s mostly just sitting around talking. Solern’s out of their comfort zone, since they really don’t like talking, and now they have to serve as a translator for the mayor, as well as answer Dave’s many questions. He luckily doesn’t ask too much about Solern at first, and Solern discovers that if they’re the one asking questions, they get to sit back and watch Dave answer with strings of metaphors so long they could wrap around the meteor a dozen times. He sure likes to hear himself talk, and finds gratitude in finally finding someone who giggles at the many jokes he makes. Dave avoids talking about himself as well, humbly sticking to topics about the other trolls, and some of his friends who are on a similar journey to the same destination.

Solern decides that they really don’t mind Dave, and utterly adore the Mayor, as was expected. They tell Dave about the incident earlier with Karkat, and past Dave’s judgement of them spying and, worse, actually enjoying the film he had been watching, he advises to give it a day, and when they go back, get the mutant started up about romcoms. Apparently he’s a big fan, and it might give Solern an opportunity to watch one. When they ask why he himself won’t show them any, Dave just punches their arm for asking such a dumb fucking question.

So Solern does just that. They spend the day reading some books, even flipping through the English ones to try to really look at the letters. They wonder which ones make which sounds, and marvel at how simple some of them are. One is just a line, one is just a circle! It’s wild. They consider asking the others to teach them, but they’re a bit of a stubborn learner so that might be a feat. Perhaps the kinder ones, Rose and Kanaya, would be more willing and effective teachers than the others.

After a few hours of sleep that is as terror-filled as usual, they crawl through the vents to seek out Karkat once more. They find themselves drawn to him, what with the castes and all. Plus he seems like he could use a friend, and he is the leader of the group which he likes to point out a lot, so befriending him could become very useful if things get ugly with the juggalo again.

They get to the grate, only to find the poster still covering it, but this time there’s something written on the back of it for Solern to see. They recognize the lines and circles to be English, but their understanding stops there. It seems to be five short words, written in big letters with a thick gray marker. They hear some shuffling from inside the respiteblock, so now that they know he’s inside, they knock gently on the grate.

“_Oh my fucking GOD_,” Karkat groans in English, “_can’t you read, nooksucker?!_”

“Not in that language,” they respond in Alternian.

“_Wait, really?_” he switches to Alternian too.

“Didn’t live on that side of the planet.”

“_But you speak it?_”

“Talked to a lot of people, but didn’t read a lot at that point in my life.”

They hear footsteps, then his voice is much louder, as if inches from their face.

“_Well then, listen up wriggler, let me soak your fucking learning sponge with some mind-boggling knowledge. Make sure to absorb as much as you can until it overflows out of your thinkpan and drips out of your goddamn head. The words say, and I quote: ‘STOP FUCKING SPYING ON ME’!_” he yells, reading those last words in English.

“Aw, come on,” they whine, hearing him walk away. “Wasn’t spying! Wasn’t meaning to, at least. That was just an interesting flick you were watching.” He grumbles, and they remember what Dave told them about this troll’s interests. “Was that one your favorite?”

“_That one?__” he scoffs. “_No way. It’s good, but far from the top of my list._”_

__

__

“Then what _is_ your favorite?”

“_Right now, it’s this human one called Hitch._”

“Hitch? That’s the title?”

“_I know, it completely fucking baffled me too. All human movie names are short._”

“Wild. Why is it your favorite?”

“_Oh, well it presents the idea of a matchmaker, who- wait why the fuck am I telling you this? God, past Karkat, you’re a goddamn idiot!_”

“No no, keep going. Please? Really want to hear about it.”

There’s a pause as Karkat thoroughly berates himself in his head, then considers Solern’s proposal. He could really use a fresh new perspective on some movies and ideas he has, and maybe they have some of their own? He walks up to the wall and rips the poster off, revealing an empty vent. He crosses his arms.

“Stop doing that moronic little trick of yours and let me see you, coward.”

Solern shyly switches the invisibility off, and looks up at Karkat with big eyes. They see that his widened too, as he hasn’t been this close to their face. He takes in their curly hair wrapped up in a messy ponytail, curious orange eyes, and short breaths making their torso rise and fall.

Karkat sighs. He can’t believe he’s about to say this. “Do you honestly like romcoms?” They nod quickly. He rolls his eyes and turns away. “This is ridiculous. I don’t even know what your fucking name is. Not that it matters, anyway. This whole interaction just feels really stupid, which is saying a lot after the shit I’ve done while being bored out of my thinkpan on this shitfucking rock.”

“Solern.”

“What?”

“Name’s Solern. And you’re Karkat Vantas.”

“Cool, looks like we’re stating facts here! Uh, let’s see, we’re trolls, everyone wants us dead, and this is an idiotic goddamn conversation.”

“Did you always have that name?”

“Huh? Yeah, duh, my lusus named me.”

“You had a lusus?”

“You didn’t??”

They stare at each other, feeling their differences hang in the air. If this guy had a lusus and everything, maybe he got to live a semi-normal life. That’s a nice thought. How the hell did he get a lusus anyways?

“Have a feeling we grew up very differently,” they observe.

“Yeah no shit,” he rolls his eyes, running a hand through his thick dark hair.

“Will you tell me about Hitch now?” Solern props themselves up on their elbows, resting their chin in their hands, looking over at him with big pleading eyes. He glares at them, but doesn’t refuse right away. Solern can see the micro-changes in his body language as he makes his decision. He groans.

“Fine! Fucking. Whatever. Only because no one in my life has ever actually seemed interested to hear me talk about this. Okay, uh, let’s start with, how firm is your grasp on quadrants? Like the firm label that they’ll put on pillows when they’re still so soft they’re practically not even on this fucking plane of existence, or like when an indigoblood tries to be pale and give out hugs like they’ll get culled if they don’t meet their cuddle quota?”

“What’s a pillow?” Karkat groans again, and Solern chuckles. “Uh, I mean. Think I understand them pretty well! Always room to learn, though.” That was actually a perfect answer, since Karkat hates those who think they know everything about quadrants (yes that includes himself), and also people like the humans who don’t know jack squat about it.

“Okay! Good starting point!” He takes the vent grate off the wall, and scrambles around to get out his computer and scoot a clothing pile pile a little closer to the wall. Solern isn’t sure if they should leave the vent, so they stay in it, preferring the uncomfortable metal making their joints ache than the risk of making this kid’s temper fire up again.

“So is this matchmaker quadrant-specific? Or do they deal with multiple ones?” Karkat can’t hide the excitement (and frustration) in his voice as he gets the opportunity to explain the human’s wack romance system to someone brand new to it.

“No, see, that’s the thing! It’s a human film, and humans don’t have quadrants.”

Their jaw drops, a bit exaggerated for dramatic flare. “No way. How does their romance work? Do they even have it?”

“They just have one form of romance, which is mostly just flushed, with some pale mixed in, and anything black is just some sort of dramatic trope. It’s fucking insane! They act pale with all their friends usually, but they call it platonic, which means-”

“It’s a species of palesluts,” they finish. Karkat laughs and nods. Solern is happy to see him smile, fangs and all.

Karkat loads up his laptop and plays the movie where Solern can see it. At first, Solern asks him to explain what some of the words mean, but Karkat soon shushes them, hissing that it isn’t important. So they watch and listen carefully as Karkat goes on and on about the underlying themes of different romances between characters, even background ones that only have one or two lines. He seems to have no problem criticizing the movie, but also expressing lots of praise for it. Solern occassionally jumps in with their own takes, most of which Karkat thinks are stupid, but they try not to take it too personally. The guy seems really involved with this, and Solern smiles, since not a lot of limes are anymore. They used to be such a loving caste with mastery over the four-square of love, but going into hiding and ceasing interaction with most other trolls has made that subject incredibly difficult and depressing to get into.

The movie ends, and Karkat starts muttering about another one that shows a great example of something he was just talking about, so he gets up to scan his pile of movies to find the right one. It’s apparently a troll movie too, so Solern should have a better chance of understanding what’s going on.

They find the silence a good opportunity to ask something they hope won’t be prodding too personal into his life, “So, do you have any quadrants filled right now?”

He freezes for a second, his brows furrowing. Then he glares at Solern for a second before returning to his search. “What a fucking rude thing to ask someone.”

“Don’t think so. It’s curiosity.”

“Curiosity my plump hairy ass.”

“So that’s a no?” they know they’re being a bit of a dick saying this, but they can’t help but tease. They suddenly feel bad for invading his space though, even just verbally. “Sorry, you don’t have to-”

“It’s fine, I guess. Not like you’ll be here long to start any fucking drama anyway.” He takes a deep breath, and Solern gets their first pang of sadness at the thought of leaving this weird group of kids. “Gamzee was my moirail. Now he has some pitch thing going on with Terezi, and I-I just can’t handle that. He kind of ended things. With me, I mean. A while ago. Fuck why am I telling you this, again?”

“It’s nice to talk things out. But, seriously dude, the _clown_?” they try to suppress a laugh, but their smile shows through.

“Yes, the clown, watch how you fucking talk about him!”

“Sorry, it's just. Haven't you seen the blood stains on his clubs??”

“Yeah-”

“And how many of the rainbows on the walls and floor that ’ve seen around are his doing?”

“A few, I guess." Oh, shit. Who caused the others, then? "But that rampage was what I calmed him down from. You wouldn’t get it. It was a really advanced, but inherently flawed, moirallegiance.”

Solern just stares at him in awe at hearing about him subduing a murderous clown. At his age, influence powers like that shouldn’t be so powerful, especially on a highblood like Makara. It could be the mutation though, since mutants are known to develop those abilities early or late, or so Solern’s heard. A lot of limeblood lore is rumor, passed around like a giant game of mobile instant speech transfer device. The killings were how long ago and Gam’s still relatively calm towards most everyone on board? Karkat’s got some impressive skills.

Karkat finds the disc he was looking for and slides it into the husktop. While he loads it up, he asks Solern’s question back to them, feigning the same amount of casual curiosity. “What about you? I mean, with the quadrants. You came from the dream bubbles, so I’m guessing you probably didn’t? I’m still confused about how that works, by the way.”

Solern dodges the last bit he said there. “Thought you said asking that was rude." He rolls his eyes. They sigh, "Your guess is right. Think I used to have someone, though.” Did that kiss make it official, though, even if for a second?

“On Alternia?”

“Yep.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah. Shit.”

Karkat feels a weight of guilt descend upon him like a heavy blanket. Sure, when Alternia was destroyed, the players had bigger things to worry about at the time. And even now, they aren’t out of the woods, just in a time-out of sorts. But, now, it really starts to sink in how much they’d destroyed. Yes, they eliminated ruthless killers, batshit cannibals, and evil slave owners. But they also killed kids, couples, anyone with hope in anything. They all died together, though, so they didn’t get to miss each other, he guesses. Except Solern, for whatever reason, who had their whole life ripped away. He wonders if the game played a part in that. He assumes the worst, that yes it did, and it’s all his fault.

Fortunately, it’s at this point that Karkat’s movie loads up. It’s one that Solern had seen before, thankfully, and one they had liked. They remember finding a disc of it a couple of sweeps back in the waste chutes while looking for food, and they watched it on their stolen husktop once they got somewhere safe. They didn’t want to make noise, so they watched it muted with subtitles. The disc was also scratched and skipped a lot, they recall, so they think it’ll be nice to see the movie in full this time.

Near the end of the movie, Solern has to abruptly leave, since the honking in the vents starts to draw closer. Before Karkat can respond, or consider asking them to come into the room to hide out, the limeblood turns invisible and quietly scurries away.

The whole next day, no one sees/smells/hears from Solern. Karkat asks Gamzee if he did anything, but the clown denies touching the wretched creature. Karkat’s never heard him talk about anyone like that, and gets a bit creeped out, so he doesn’t talk to him for long.

But later, when their bodies are telling them that it’s nighttime, Solern shows up again in the form of three small taps on Karkat’s vent. He keeps it covered up still, since he wants to be certain they aren’t watching him, but this poster has no writing on the backside of it.

Karkat unhooks the poster, revealing an already-visible Solern sitting in the vent. He takes the grate off immediately. “Where were you today? I thought Gamzee got you, you bastard.”

“Aww, you worried about me?” they tease. His cheeks darken and he folds his arms over his chest.

“Hell no, I just wanted to know if your ugly face would come up trying to spy on me again. Knowing I could sleep in the privacy of my own goddamn respiteblock would really do wonders.” Solern hopes he’s not serious. But seeing as he’s already welcoming them faster than he did the day before, they figure that he’s just pulling shit out of his ass as usual.

“Sure.”

“But I talked to Gamzee, and he said he didn’t touch you, so I was just. Wondering. That’s fucking it, stop implying that I’m making advances.”

Solern holds their hands up in surrender. “Wasn’t doing anything like that, swear!” Then, they consider how bad it could be that Gamzee knows their blood color and also talks to a lot of the inhabitants of the meteor. They swallow thickly. “Um, did y’all talk about anything else?” While Karkat is mutated lime, it sounds like he had a wildly different upbringing, so you can never be sure. Plus they’ve learned to trust no one, especially after that mutant that outed them on Alternia.

“Not really? I told him to leave this area the hell alone. I don’t need his brainless fuckjamming juggalo ass coming near either of us to interrupt more movies.”

“Really? That’s… really nice. Thanks.”

“Shut up. Now, okay, I picked out this one…” and so another night of movies ensue, now without interruptions. After a couple hours, Dave calls Karkat out to settle Terezi down about something, so Karkat has to say goodnight. He covers the vent with the grate and poster, leaving Solern to the darkness again. They crawl back through the vents into a storage room on the other side of the lab they’ve become familiar with as their resting place (they tried sleeping in the vents but that just isn’t possible or safe). They climb out, stretch out their limbs, cover the vent with some boxes scattered about, and curl up in the corner to fall asleep. They wonder how long this journey will last. It’s certainly getting more tolerable, though.

The following day, Solern decides that **he** wants to try to learn how to read English. He considers his options for teachers: Dave and Karkat had already offered to do it together, but Solern thinks that that doesn’t seem like a very effective reading environment. Terezi is blind, Gamzee wants to murder him, and the Mayor doesn’t seem to know how to teach (just how to be an amazing friend and town leader). So he decides that Rose and Kanaya will do, since they seem rational, sophisticated, and enjoy teaching each other about their different cultures.

He wonders how to approach the situation. Coming in through the vents seem awkward, yet safe, in case the girl with the chainsaw isn’t as gentle with him as she is with everyone else. Waltzing in through the doors would be a trick they haven’t tried before, and could end badly, especially since both ladies seem very protective, and might not welcome a new guest unannounced. He also considers asking Dave or Karkat to introduce him to them, but he’d have to do it without revealing his intentions.

So in what would be around the early afternoon, Solern quickly cleans up in the facilities around the ship, makes sure his clothes are as nice as they can look, and exits the room he’s unofficially claimed as his. He walks invisible through the hallways, just in case. He still keeps an eye out for the tealblood and her all-seeing nose. He stops at the door to Karkat’s respiteblock (at least he hopes it is - he was trying to match the layout of the vents to the layout of the hallways and rooms). After a quick look around to make sure he’s alone (god being out here feels so vulnerable), he knocks twice on the door.

“Didn’t I just fucking get done telling you to leave me the everliving fuck alone?!” comes a shrieking red voice from inside the room.

“Uh, don’t think so,” Solern mumbles. Then he says a bit louder, “I-It’s Solern.”

There’s a pause, then stomping footsteps, cuing Solern to turn visible again. The door cracks open, and a disheveled Karkat peeks through. He’s a bit shorter than Solern, who’s considered a little less than average height for his age and caste. Karkat wears a t-shirt instead of his usual sweater, which looks a bit strange on him, but fits his form nicely from the sliver that Solern can see.

Karkat sticks to speaking in English, not bothering to be courteous. “Oh wow, someone learned how to use a door, congratulations. Should we throw a party? I’ll blow up the balloons, then my skull after that. What do you want?” He seems especially crabby, but Solern’s on a mission, so he pushes on.

“Hey. Wanted to know if you’d introduce me to Rose and Kanaya?” they stick to Alternian, feeling more comfortable that way. Karkat doesn't do the same, leading to a funny-sounding bilingual conversation.

“What? Why? They’re snobs.”

“Wanted to meet them,” Solern shrugs. “The more of your crew on my side, the less deadly this situation is for me.”

“Your _side_? The fuck does that mean?”

“Don’t know, like, friends? Not hating me?”

“Why don’t you meet them yourself? I’m not in the mood to wrigglersit.”

“They kind of intimidate me.” Karkat rolls his eyes. “Have you seen the jadeblood’s chainsaw? Plus I don’t even know what humans can do.”

“Not a whole fucking lot, I’ve learned.” He sighs, and runs his claws through his hair. “What do you want me to do?” His attitude which is leaning towards saying yes is showing through the tone in his voice.

“Just come with me, tell them not to kill me, that’s it. Please?” Karkat groans, and closes the door. Solern steps back, going invisible out of reflex, not knowing what to do now.

A moment later, Karkat emerges again, this time stepping into the hallway and closing the door behind him. He’s wearing his sweater now, and his hair looks like it was at least attempted to be tamed. He looks around angrily, and Solern appears in front of him, making him jump a bit.

“What the fuck did I say about doing that?!”

“Sorry.”

“Whatever,” he grumbles, starting down the hallway. Solern keeps pace with him by his side. “It’s a stupid power, everyone on this ship’s got stupid fucking powers.”

“What’s yours?”

“The power to introduce you to some girls you apparently want to meet, do you want to push that a little more, fuckass?” Solern shakes **their** head quickly. “That’s what I thought. Now, when we get there, I’m leaving. I’m not in the mood to deal with them or anyone else ever again.”

“Did something happen?” they ask softly.

“Nope, we are not talking about that. Actually, I have an idea, let’s walk there silently, so I don’t have to listen to my own godawful voice for one beautiful minute?” Solern wants to debate him on that, but they figure that he needs some space. They figure that maybe this small bit of quiet company might be good, like how some meowbeasts show affection just by being in the same room as you.

The distance to the library where the girls spend a lot of time is not far, so the two arrive there quickly. Solern prepares themselves to knock softly on the door, but Karkat slams it open with one hard push. Kanaya and Rose looked like they were standing very close to each other over a book they were reading together, but they jump back at the sudden intrusion.

“Karkat, how many times have I taught you to knock?” Kanaya says in her soft voice.

“How many times have I told you to stop closing the door to a common room we all fucking share? When I said to get a room I didn’t mean a goddamn public one with the door shut!” He takes a deep breath, running out of patience. Solern peeks out from behind him, and he grabs their arm and shoves them into the room. “This is that new troll, Solern. They wanted to meet you two, for what is beyond me, and even more baffling is the fact that they couldn’t do it themselves! I’m pretty sure they’re harmless, but if they aren’t, well you two are capable of handling that. My part in this is over now, goodbye!”

“Thank you,” Solern mumbles as Karkat slams the door behind them and storms back off to sulk some more in his respiteblock.

Solern looks at the floor shyly, every second of silence hanging thickly in the air. Fortunately there’s only a few before Rose speaks up.

“Welcome, Solern, was it?”

“That's me.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Yes, it is not ideal to know of somebody only through rumors.”

Solern breathes a deep sigh of relief, as this is a good sign that they won’t be in any danger with these two.

“What brings you here now? Kanaya and I were just reading about some new alchemy techniques. You are more than welcome to join if that topic interests you.”

“Um, yeah, that’s kind of it. Came here to, uh, learn how to read? In English, I mean. Grew up only knowing Alternian. Learned English through speaking,” they quickly explain. The girls smile, starting to feel some motherly instincts over the timid troll who just wants to learn.

So they pull up some chairs, set up some markers and paper, and start with the alphabet. Rose has a nice little melody for the alphabet that was apparently popular where she’s from, which helps them remember the order. Both Solern and Kanaya are entranced when Rose sings the song in her gentle voice.

Solern mainly has difficulty learning to read from left to right, but soon it becomes clear that it’s much easier to write that way. They’re right-handed, while most trolls are ambidextrous, so they’ve always had issues with getting ink all over their hand when they write. They’re relieved to see that end today!

At one point, Rose leaves to go attempt to alchemize some children’s books that are in English. Solern doesn’t like the idea of being treated like a child, but the short words in big letters will probably be helpful for them.

When Rose is gone, Solern settles back into familiar Alternian.

“Can I ask something about Rose?” They really want to ask if she’s her matesprit.

“I suppose, but I might not be able to answer depending on the nature of the question,” she responds, also in Alternian. She hopes they aren’t going to ask if she and her are matesprits.

“What’s her blood color?” they ask at the last second, changing their mind. They were going to ask if it’s really light purple, but they hold back, as synesthesia is common among limebloods and is either met with suspicion or confusion.

Kanaya smiles, relieved. “Oh. Humans all have red blood.”

“Wait, really? All of them?” Huh, I guess blood color doesn’t match voice color for humans, then.

“Mhm. Every one.”

“You’re kidding. How is their society separated, then?”

“I can assure you that I am not kidding. Human society is divided by other factors well out of their control. Income, skin color, gender, physical abilities, and sexuality, to name a few.”

“They have different skin colors?” Solern pictures humans with skins colored all the different colors of the rainbow. “And their gender matters?” Solern hates to think what kind of fate that would bring for themselves, whose gender changes up to multiple times a day.

“Yes indeed. There are many factors leading to various hierarchies in human society, resulting in different levels of intersectional oppression. It’s quite distressing to hear about, really.”

“Huh. What did you mean by sexuality? Karkat said they didn’t have quadrants. Still have trouble comprehending that.”

“Ah yes, the singular yet vast human emotion of love. Humans define sexuality as the gender, or genders, one is attracted to, as relating to their own.”

“You’re serious?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Rose informed me that it was the accepted norm on most of their planet to only be attracted to the opposite sex. Anything else was taboo. I’m surprised you haven’t heard Dave’s excessive use of the word ‘gay’ yet.”

“Oh, I have, but didn’t know what he meant by it.”

“It’s when someone only likes people of the gender that matches their own.”

“Why is there even a word for that? That’s stupid.”

“It is quite absurd.”

“Are you and Rose...?” they can’t stop themselves from asking. Kanaya, expecting the question, blushes anyways, and turns to the bookshelves to look busy and hide her face.

“No, no, we just have a.... strong, mutual bond… over shared interests and opinions.”

“Oh, okay. Just thought you two looked a little red for each other, is all. My bad.”

“Really? You think she seems that way towards me?” Kanaya turns around, hopeful.

“Yeah, did you not pick up any of that? Rest easy knowing I never spied on you two, it was like watching a romance movie where all the characters do is pine after each other.” Kanaya blushes further at this. Solern offers a smile. “Think you two look cute together, though.”

“You do?”

“Yeah.”

Kanaya shines bright at this, literally beaming at the words. Solern’s eyes go wide and they take a step back.

“Woah, what the fuck-?”

Kanaya makes a startled noise, and dims the glow of her skin back down. She smiles shyly. “That was an accident.”

“You looked like a damn drinker for a second there.”

“Oh, I am one.”

Solern blinks a few times. “Come again?”

At this point, Rose comes back through the doors, a large stack of thick, colorful books in her arms. Kanaya chuckles, covering her mouth. She switches back to English in the presence of Rose. “Don’t worry, I have never hurt anybody.”

“I think a certain seadweller would disagree if we were in a dream bubble of his right now, wouldn’t he?” Rose chimes in, setting the books down. A lot of strange drawings of weird, furry animals on the covers of some jump out at Solern, but their attention is hooked on the fact that they’re in the presence of a literal rainbow drinker.

“You’re right, I should have been more specific. I have never drunk blood in a way that has hurt anyone. And although yours smells delightful, I have learned to suppress my urges, or indulge in healthy and consensual ways.” Fucking great! Now there’s another troll here that’s particularly interested in my blood, that’s fantastic! They take another step back.

“Speaking of, what color is your blood, Solern? I’ve noticed lots of trolls use their color as their brand, typing in it and wearing it on a lot of their clothes, but I haven’t noticed that in you.”

“Yes, I’m curious to know if you participate in hemotyping. The symbol on your clothes does not match any caste I’ve seen before.” Solern looks down at the crossed out circle they wear on their hoodie that represents being removed from everything: society, gender stability, social circles.

“Don’t wanna talk about it,” they mumble, still in Alternian. They figured that this knowledgeable human would know the language, but they were wrong, as she looks to Kanaya for a translation.

“What did they say?”

“The same thing that Karkat always said about his. Granted, with none of the explicatives he was fond of using when the subject came up,” she smiles at Rose, who nods in understanding. Kanaya then turns back to Solern. “And that’s okay. We should look into this reading material Rose made for us anyways. Just know that Karkat may be able to relate, since he had similar insecurities.”

And with that, the subject is dropped. Solern masters the alphabet with the help of Rose’s jingle, and is even able to get through a book about colors. It’s easier than learning the language from scratch, since they know the words and grammar, they just have to match the symbols to it. Some of them are so similar, though, it messes them up. Who decided that a small L and a big I should both just be a line? Who even came up with having capital and lowercase letters anyway? The system frustrated them, but they pushed through. They leave after a few hours when they notice Kanaya inching towards them and practically sniffing them. Rose let them have the books and notes to study with on their own time, and Solern makes sure to thank them politely before absconding and getting far as fuck away from the drinker.

Later, they make their way through the vents, and is surprised when they approach Karkat’s respiteblock to see that the poster is gone. They’re able to look in, and see that Karkat is sitting in a pile of sweaters on his floor, headphones on, listening to something on his husktop while gently nodding his head to the beat drumming through them. He’s facing the vents, but doesn’t see Solern. They realize they had made themselves invisible out of instinct, and don’t want to look like they were spying, so they back up, reappear, and crawl forward again. This time Karkat sees them approach, and his expression is difficult to describe. It looks like he’s trying to scowl, but is having trouble making it look convincing. He yanks off the headphones and sets the computer down.

“Aren’t you early, fuckwad?”

“Didn’t realize this was an appointment,” they quip smugly. Watching and occasionally hanging around Dave is making them more sassy.

“Whatever.” He stands and takes the grate off. Apparently he trusts them enough not to spy on him, but not trusting that they won’t come into the room without permission. He puts his hands on his hips. “Are you going to actually leave the vent this time? Laying in there looks as comfortable as the shit I saw drones do to psionics back home.”

Home. Is that how he sees Alternia? ...Is that how I see it?

“Uh, didn’t know it was okay with you,” they say softly. He turns and adjusts his piles for maximum comfort.

“I don’t fucking care, it’s what you do when you’re invisible that gives me anxiety. Which is why you won’t do that, right?” They agree. “Good. I'd actually prefer if you did leave that fucking hidey-hole, 'cause angling the husktop to where you can see it from up there is really just frying my nerves at this point,” he huffs. Solern crawls out of the vent carefully, using their grip on the wall to keep quiet and to keep from just dropping onto the ground. They hope Karkat didn’t see, since it’s not a super common ability and they don’t like their abilities being gawked at, but when they stand up they see him staring right at them with his eyebrows raised. He gratefully doesn’t say anything about it.

The room is pretty cluttered, but doesn’t look dirty. There’s a rack of clothes as well as lots strewn all over the floor in piles. Most outfits of his look black and gray, which is kind of sad. Solern remembers dressing like that. Yeah, dark times. There’s a big recuperacoon on one side of the room, which is a few feet away from the foot of… something. It looks like a weird big couch, that’s more sitting area than backrest, and has no arm rests. There’s lots of blankets bunched up on it. They wonder what it’s for. They store that in the ever-growing list of shit they don’t understand about these trolls. It’s probably some human thing, honestly.

Kakat follows their gaze and notices their confusion. “That’s a bed, humans sleep on them instead of in recuperacoons.”

“Weird.”

“Fucking tell me about it. Their species never ceases to baffle me. We fucking created them and yet they’re so different from us.” Wait, created them? That’s DEFINITELY going on the list of shit to ask about, and probably up high too.

Solern hesitantly sits near Karkat on the floor, claiming there to be not enough room in the pile for the both of them. The movie starts up, but this troll flick is much slower than the others, and is a lot more about the caste system and culling of lowbloods than the actual romance or comedy. At least, the culling is the part that Solern focuses on the most.

Karkat and Solern start to talk about life in the shadows of Alternia, relating to the feelings of always being on edge, never able to sleep or leave the house. Solern keeps themselves from talking about the family of limes and jades that raised them, and stick to events and feelings that Karkat seems familiar with. Before long, the movie is long forgotten background noise, and the two are just facing each other, talking.

It might just be the borderline-smutty movie playing beside them, but there’s… something in the air. The two kids just look at each other for a minute, searching each other’s eyes. Solern searches Karkat’s for any sign of feelings towards them, and Karkat searches for something they hope is similar.

It’s not.

And he finds it.

His eyes expand as he gasps, and he forcefully shoves Solern onto their back. They grunt, not expecting that. Maybe I read him wrong and he’s feeling totally pitch??

But there’s no attraction in his voice, only anger, as he stands to tower over Solern. “What the fuck!! You lied to me, you douchefucking dickshit?!”

“W-What?”

“There’s a speck,” he leans down, “in your motherfucking eye,” he pulls them up slightly off the ground by the front of their shirt, “that’s fucking _green_.” Oh shit, oh fuck. Think quickly!!

“Uhh,” is all they get out, trying to push and squirm out of his grip, but he’s holding on strong.

“I was hoping to see some sort of Karkat-brand radioactive red in your eyes, since god damn it would be nice to see the terrible color on someone else for a change!”

“Uh, yeah, about that-!” they stammer out nervously.

“And I see what, fucking olive?! Why the shit would you try to use something-”

“I-It’s lime!” Solern cuts off, moving their hand to their own side. They understand the confusion of colors, since they’re pretty similar shades at first glance, and practically no troll’s even seen lime blood before.

“What?” Karkat blinks in confusion. He looks down, seeing that Solern pulled up the side of their hoodie and shirts underneath, to reveal their grub scars. They’re a much better example of the blood color, clearly showing the bright green sourness that matches the illegal shit that their chest vessel pumps.

Alright, stop thinking, just talk! “Lime blood. That’s what you’d be without the mutation. Never said I was candy red, just that we’re pretty much the same…” they trail off. Karkat lets go of their shirt, letting them drop on the ground with another grunt. They pull the shirt back down and watch him carefully. He goes from shock and confusion back to anger.

“What the fuck, they’re not the same! Lime is in the middle of the damn spectrum!”

“Did you miss the whole execution of that caste? How many limebloods have you ever met, hm?” Solern starts getting agitated too. They hate being reminded of their place in the color order, since Her Imperial Condescension never bothered considering that when wiping the whole color off the map. Karkat softens again, kneeling beside the lying Solern.

“Shit. None I guess.”

“Lowbloods are killed for fun, we’re killed on sight.”

“So how the fuck are you still alive?!”

“Got lucky? Same as you, pretty sure. You sound even luckier. None of us ever get a lusus.”

“‘Us’? There’s more?”

“A few,” they sigh. “A couple even raised me, and having trolls as my stand-in custodians was really weird. Think they died at some point after I left, though.”

“The humans do that, actually, where the older ones raise the young. The humans here all had their guardians killed, too. Same with all of our lusii.”

“Shit. Buncha orphans, then?” they say sadly, looking up at the ceiling.

“It certainly shows with how fucking dysfunctional we all are,” he grumbles, sitting down. He noticed that Solern hasn’t sit up, and is tracing their thumb back and forth over where their grub scars are. Karkat had noticed before that the bottom-most layer of their shirts was a special kind of tight wrappings that’s used to hide grub scars, or nipples, if the troll wanted to keep them a secret for whatever reason. He guesses Solern had a pretty good reason. He had considered wearing one back on Alternia, but he opted for just never interacting with people in person. It worked fine, apparently (in terms of survival, not a social life).

“Can I ask something? It’s probably come out fucking stupid like every fucking thing that spills from my-”

“Go ahead.”

Karkat takes a deep breath and tries to word this carefully, but ending up rambling regardless. “What can limebloods… do? Like what makes them cull-on-sight dangerous? I mean, shit, if there are trolls who have telekinesis, psionic abilities, and mind control powers, yet they’re left alive, then the limebloods must have some pretty crazy goddamn tricks up their sleeves.” It’s something he’d always wondered, but never dared to ask anyone.

Solern smiles. “Apparently, back in the day, we could start revolutions,” they say wondrously. Karkat raises an eyebrow at them, signaling them to continue, so they do. “Power of inspiration, apparently. Like mind control, but more subtly, more passive. Can plant seeds of thoughts into people’s mind with a single touch.”

“Wait, that’s it? So why didn’t they do it to the seadwellers to change everything?”

Solern shrugs. “It’s temporary on highbloods, like you saw with Gamzee. So most would just pick lowbloods that seemed like good leaders, and influence them to lead uprisings. So when The Condense wanted to snuff out the whole thing, she went for the throats of the ones who started it, and kept everyone else from getting too inspired. The lower castes have- had numbers, obviously, they just needed a spark to get the fire going. We were apparently the strike sticks that threatened to burn the whole system to the ground. Small power, big consequences.”

Suddenly, so many things click into place for Karkat. Subduing Gamzee so quickly, the story of his ancestor and how he has apparently inspired an entire revolution. Even thinking of how The Signless was chained by his hands, unable to touch anyone…

Karkat flops on his back, his mind spinning. He feels familiar headaches coming on, and holds his head, groaning. Solern sits up and looks over at him, concerned.

“You okay?”

“That’s a fucking lot to take in, don’t you think?”

“You asked,” they tease.

He uncovers his face and looks at them, leaning up on his elbows. “And you’re saying I can do that? The fucking touch-to-inspire shit?”

“Maybe?” they shrug, laying back down beside him. “Mutants are always different. Shouldn’t be able to do it this young, but apparently you can.”

“Can you?”

They blink a few times at the unexpected question, opening their mouth but taking a moment to think it over. “No. At least not on you, or any other lime. And not at my age, don’t think. Hear that around 10 they start kicking in. But so much of this is just rumors. Our history was erased along with us.” Explaining this to a limeblood who didn’t know any of it is so far the hardest conversation they’ve ever had, it’s just so sad. And now they are the last two remaining. That makes them think… “Hey, what are your guys’ plans for rebuilding the species anyway? Or is it all dying with you bunch?”

“Kanaya had a matriorb, but it was destroyed by one of our resident murderous assholes. She’s trying to figure something out.”

Solern lets out a long breath. “Wow. Never thought I’d be one of the last of my caste.”

“I never thought there’d been more in the first place. But I guess it’s just us now, yeah. Shit.”

Karkat takes Solern’s hand in his, gently and carefully. Both aren’t sure why he does this. But Solern puts up no resistance, and lets the blush crawl up their face as they try to begin to process all of this. They lay there silently for a while, wondering about the future, fearing what’s to come. The fears don’t get too far though, since the comforting sensation of their hands together reminds them that they aren’t alone. It’s at this point, too, that both of them internally wish for Solern to stick around.


End file.
